Previous reviews examined palliative care improvements or available measures but none explicitly on improving care experiences. We reviewed literature on improving patient and/or caregiver end-of-life care experiences.
Interviews with family members about their loved one's end-of-life care found that a majority thought he or she received the right amount of care. One in six said their family member received too little care.
Compared with caregivers of non-Hispanic whites, caregivers of Asian decedents reported unmet needs for caregiver support and lack of respect for cultural traditions and religious/spiritual beliefs.
Opportunities exist to improve hospice care for symptom palliation and training for caregivers when their family members are at home or in an ALF setting. Efforts to improve care for cancer patients in the NH and ALF setting are especially needed.
Hospice characteristics associated with strong performance on Hospice Item Set measures differ from those associated with strong performance on CAHPS measures. Providing professional staff visits in the last two days of life is associated with high performance in both quality domains.
Important opportunities exist to improve quality of hospice care in nursing homes and assisted-living facilities. Quality improvement and regulatory interventions targeting these settings are needed to ensure that all hospice decedents and their family receive high-quality, patient- and family-centered hospice care.
The aim of this study was to describe the current status of how nursing homes integrates palliative care and infection management at end of life across the nation.
The objective of this paper is to quantify expected beneficiary and health system costs incurred in association with receipt of intensive medical services in the last month of life.
A rapidly aging U.S. population with complex care needs will likely accelerate emphasis on palliative care services. A review of palliative care research found substantial evidence to support clinical practice guidelines and was incorporated into the new edition of the guidelines.
This issue features a Q&A with Michael Rich, Soledad O'Brien, and Francis Fukuyama on the perils of truth decay, and a story on the trend toward unretirement among U.S. workers. The Voices column features Gulrez Shah Azhar on environmental refugees.
Black and Hispanic patients are more likely to receive care from poorer-quality hospices. And their family caregivers are less likely to receive the right amount of emotional and religious support in hospice care. However, caregivers of black and Hispanic patients report similar or better experiences than caregivers of white patients within a given hospice.
This article describes the current status of home-based medical care in the United States and offers a brief narrative of a fictional homebound patient and the health events and fragmented care she faces.
This report describes development of the Hospice Experience of Care Survey, field test design, procedures, analytic methods and findings, and the final survey for national implementation by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
Understanding how patients experience care can encourage delivery of high-quality services. It also helps payers, including the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, ensure that they pay for effective and efficient care.
This study assessed hospice use by men dying of prostate cancer and compared the use of high-intensity care between those who did or did not enroll in hospice. Those who enroll in hospice are less likely to receive high-intensity end-of-life care.
